1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to an information processing system and a failure diagnosis method.
2. Description of the Related Art
When a failure occurs in an electronic device, such as a copying machine or a printer, a service person such as a client engineer (hereinafter referred to as “CE”) has to be dispatched to the site where the electronic device is located to perform necessary repairs. The CE typically examines the electronic device to determine the cause of failure and then performs the necessary repairs.
Techniques are known for automating failure diagnosis of a conveying apparatus or an image forming apparatus, for example, by generating a model similar to probabilistic information processing model representing the causality of failure in the apparatus and analyzing the cause of failure based on the model. Using such technique, the cause of failure, such as the specific location of the failure and specific details of the failure may be analyzed (see, e.g., Japanese Patent No. 4538845).
However, the time required to restore an electronic device that has failed may vary depending on the CE that is dispatched to the site of the electronic device, for example. That is, the time involved in properly determining the cause of failure and the time involved in determining the appropriate measures to be taken and then actually implementing these measures may vary depending on the specific failure that has occurred and the ability of the CE, for example.
Also, in the above-described technique that involves using a model representing the causality of failure of a device to perform failure diagnosis for identifying the cause of failure, such as the specific location of the failure and specific details of the failure, no analysis is conducted with respect to the appropriate measures to be implemented in responds to the specific cause of failure identified by the failure diagnosis.
Additionally, techniques are known for predicting failure of an electronic device such as an image forming apparatus and determining the timing of maintenance work, such as inspection or part replacement, to be implemented on the image forming apparatus based on the estimated extent of deterioration of parts and/or the estimated time of failure occurrence in the image forming apparatus, for example.
Further, techniques are known for generating a maintenance plan for an image forming apparatus based on the relationship between the expected service life of Consumable parts and the extent of use (operation) of the image forming apparatus, for example (see, e.g., Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2011-181073).
When a failure occurs or is expected to occur in an image forming apparatus that is subject to maintenance management, for example, a service person such as a CE has to be dispatched to the site of the image forming apparatus to perform repair work for fixing the failure or maintenance work for preventing the failure.
However, depending on the ability and experience of the CE, it may be difficult for the CE to perform certain repair work for fixing a failure that has occurred in an image forming apparatus, for example. Also, depending on the current location of the CE, it may take a long time for the CE to reach the site of the image forming apparatus, for example. Thus, it is difficult to determine the appropriate CE to be dispatched to the image forming apparatus.